Etruria, where the priestess Queen, warrior Queen, would seem to have
been so usual a character.

An instance of the noble Roman marriage, where the stern and calm
nobleness of the nation was common to both, we see in the historic
page through the little that is told us of Brutus and Portia.
Shakspeare has seized on the relation in its native lineaments,
harmonizing the particular with the universal; and, while it is
conjugal love, and no other, making it unlike the same relation as
seen in Cymbeline, or Othello, even as one star differeth from another
in glory.

"By that great vow
Which did incorporate and make us one,
Unfold to me, yourself, your other half,
Why you are heavy. ...
Dwell I but in the suburbs
Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,
Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife."


Mark the sad majesty of his tone in answer. Who would not have lent a
life-long credence to that voice of honor?

"You are my true and honorable wife;
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
That visit this sad heart."


It is the same voice that tells the moral of his life in the last